Damn the Consequences
by Bodrugan
Summary: 5th year. Valenines day. Harry can't go to Hogsmeade and so Cho goes with someone else. What is Harry to do? The usual naked marriage rituals, angry redheads, manipulative Dumbledore etc... Harry/Ginny,
1. Chapter 1

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I CAN'T GO TO HOGSMEADE?" shouted an irate Harry.

"The High Inquisitor has been going through your files and found that the wanted criminal Sirius Black was the one who signed your permission slip. For your own safety she has generously destroyed it." Filch said, grinning wickedly.

Harry was left speechless, what could he do?

He could see that Cho, who had gone through before him, was getting slightly impatient.

"Are you coming or not Harry?" she called out, a trace of anger in her voice.

"Umm, I'm sorry Cho but I guess we'll have to do this some other time. Umbridge has stopped me from going to Hogsmeade," he complained, walking over to her.

"WHAT? If I'd have known 'The Boy Who Lived' would stand ME up, then I would have chosen someone with more than just a famous name!" screamed Cho angrily.

This riled Harry's anger no end. "Fine, if that's the way you want it! I don't know what I ever saw in you."

"Fine, there's plenty of guys out there who would kill for the chance to go to Hogsmeade with me!"

Harry couldn't believe that he'd been so taken in by the older girl. He wished he could have a girlfriend who understood him, who knew him, somebody who would support him in all his trials. For some reason Ginny Weasley popped into his head, he quickly snuffed that idea, Ginny was probably the friend that understood him the most, she was funny and smart, but she had a boyfriend and six elder brothers, and besides, she was over him he thought glumly.

He was just about to leave for Gryffindor tower when he saw Cho run into someone's welcoming arms down the path towards Hogsmeade. That person was none other than Michael Corner, Ginny's boyfriend. He proceeded to kiss Cho hungrily on the lips. Harry had had enough and stormed past them, heading for the Quidditch pitch where the Gryffindor team were practicing.

Picking up a broom, from the broom shed, Harry took off in search of Ginny. She needed to know about her supposed boyfriend's activities. Seeing her swoop and dive around the pitch was amazing. 'She really is a great flier' Harry thought as he speeded after her.

Just then one of the new beaters hit a bludger towards her. Ginny, concentrating on finding the snitch, didn't notice the bludger heading towards her.

"Ginny!" Harry called out to her. She looked around, finally noticing the bludger heading straight for her head. With a curse she twisted to the side, the bludger missing her by inches. However, as she did so, she lost her grip on her broom. She was tumbling towards the ground screaming.

Harry saw this and, still speeding towards her, he reached out to grab her. He caught her around the waist and she clung on to him for dear life. The only problem now was that their combined weight was too heavy for the rickety old school broom Harry had been riding. They glided steeply down towards the ground. Harry was able to pull the broom up a bit but it was still a bumpy landing. He and Ginny rolled off together onto the grass of the pitch, Harry ending up lying closely on top of her.

Harry stared into her chocolate brown eyes for what seemed like an eternity. He hadn't noticed how much she had grown in recent months, and now pressed against her he felt as though electric currents were running through his body.

Obviously Ginny could too, because she blushed but tried to move closer to him anyway. She licked her lips almost seductively.

Harry leaned in and captured her lips with his own. Ginny growled and rapped her arms around his neck pulling him even closer.

Harry left her mouth moving down her neck, trailing kisses as he went.

"Oh! Harry! Oh Harry please st-stop!" Ginny tried to say. "Harry I have a boyfriend."

"Not any more. He's off snogging Cho."

"What! Oh Harry!" Ginny exclaimed before Harry started kissing her neck once again.

"Is this the year that every guy at Hogwarts takes advantage of my little sister?" cried Ron angrily, swooping down towards them.

"Oh shut up Ron," said Ginny pointing her wand at her brother. With a flick of her wand, two beater's bats materialised on either side of Ron. The bats then proceeded to hit giant bludger shaped bogies at Ron, covering him from head to foot in mucus.

With that done Harry grabbed Ron's broom from him and lifted Ginny onto it. Seating himself behind her, he pulled her back towards him, his arms around her waist. Ginny blushed again but she was smiling.

They zoomed off towards the castle, ignoring Angelina's shouts, and landed on a stone balcony neither had noticed before, at the top of Gryffindor tower. Opening the doors into the rooms beyond, Harry and Ginny gasped.

The room they had entered was the largest bedroom either had ever seen. It was decorated in Gryffindor colours, and there was a massive four posted bed. Ginny wasted no time in pulling Harry towards it.

"Shouldn't we find out whose room this is before we go about using it?" Harry asked half-heartedly.

" Well according to 'Hogwarts a History' there are a set of hidden rooms in Gryffindor tower which belonged to Gryffindor himself. Only people considered worthy are permitted access." Ginny explained, again tugging Harry towards the bed. "Come on, I've waited too long for this Mr Potter."

"W-Wait Ginny, are you sure we should do this? Were not married, what will your family say?"

"Well," said Ginny, "I do know of one way we can get married, it's an ancient Celtic ceremony that I was reading about recently. We need a ring each, and also some sort of fabric to bind our bodies together." She looked around the room expectantly.

"Aha! Here we are," Ginny said as she ran over to a dressing table with some jewellery boxes stacked on top. "Perfect," she said as she opened two ring boxes. She opened a nearby drawer and pulled out a very long white silk scarf. "That'll do," she said, examining it.

Once she was back at the bed she told Harry what they had to do. "We need to be naked, facing each other, with the scarf wrapped around us, then we both say 'Imbolc' and put the rings on each other's fingers.

"OK," said Harry, leaning in to kiss her again. He then started to pull off her Quidditch robes as she did the same with his school ones. They continued to strip until they were naked. Feeling the other's eyes on them they both blushed slightly.

Harry pulled Ginny to him. He kissed her deeply, both of them feeling each other's bodies react to their closeness.

Ginny took the scarf and, using her wand, she wrapped it tightly around them both. "Imbolc," they both incanted, placing the rings on each other's ring fingers. Their world exploded in light.


	2. Chapter 2

The scarf glowed with a blinding white light. It then appeared to sink into them and disappear.

"Oh, did I mention that one of the side effects is that we have to stay in constant physical contact for twenty four hours?" Ginny asked mischievously.

"No, I don't recall that you did, sweet Guinevere, but I'm sure that we can think of some things to do."

Harry suddenly heard Ginny gasp and looking down he saw that she was staring at the two rings on their entwined hands. She had obviously not studied them in any detail when she found them. His ring of red gold bore a lion's head with rubies for eyes and a large emerald clutched in its jaws. Her ring of green gold however bore the head of a serpent with two emerald eyes and a large ruby behind its fangs. It looked almost lifelike enough to enable him to speak parseltongue to it. What was the most intriguing though was that the rings appeared to be glowing with some kind of magical power.

"You don't mind it do you? It doesn't remind you too much of the..." he left off there, he didn't really want to bring up the Chamber here.

"Oh no, I can't even remember the basilisk apart from seeing it after you killed it," She replied, looking back up nervously into his eyes. "Thank you for saving my life, not just in the Chamber but just now as well. I hope that I'll be able to repay you by someday giving you the family you've always wanted, the family you've always deserved."

They shared another kiss before Ginny toppled them onto the surprisingly comfortable bed.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Harry nervously.

"Yes Harry. I've been dreaming of this day for years, and we are married. You do have certain obligations towards your wife, you know."

"My wife," Harry grinned.

What they got up to next will forever stay between them, but let's just say that they had an awful lot of fun and that Molly Weasley certainly wouldn't approve.

Several hours later the two still lay together in the bed, Harry breathed in the fragrance of her hair.

"Oh… Ginny… I love you so much," he said, rather breathlessly.

They lay there, Ginny curling herself up in Harry's arms, her head resting on his chest.

"I love you too, husband," Ginny said while snuggling up to him, and with that they both fell into a deep dreamless sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

When Ginny awoke she thought she must have dreamt the whole thing and that at any moment Angelina was going to get her up for Quidditch practice. That was until she felt someone laying next to her.

She opened her eyes and immediately blinked. Had she really just seen what she thought she saw? '_Yes,_' her mind told her.

She opened her eyes again, seeing those brilliant green eyes of her dreams staring back into hers. But this wasn't a dream, her mind told her.

She blinked once again, before looking back into those emerald pools. She now noticed the worry etched into them.

Then it hit her, what they had done that very morning. '_Oh Merlin, what was I thinking?' _she asked herself. '_Mums going to kill me! My brothers are going to kill Harry!' _she thought, sitting up and unconsciously grabbing Harry's hand. She closed her eyes, trying to remember what had happened.

"I'm sorry Gin," Harry said, his eyes looking downwards, "I should have had more control. I mean this could be anyone's room that we're in, and there's the fact that your family are going to murder us!"

"Don't worry Harry, I'm sure they won't all kill us. Mum'll certainly kill me for corrupting you and behaving like a scarlet woman, and my brothers will kill you for corrupting me and turning me into a scarlet woman, all apart from the twins, they'll probably just prank you, and Dad will think it's a bit soon, but be fine with it as long as it makes me happy."

"That's one thing I love about you," Harry chuckled, "your wicked sense of humour."

Ginny made as if to slap him, but Harry just ducked out of the way.

"So where are we?" he asked, looking around the room. "This place had better not be McGonagall's," he shuddered at the idea.

"Remember I told you, this is Gryffindor's secret bedchamber. Come on Mr Potter, let's get dressed and then we can do some exploring," she said, pulling him up off the bed with her. Kissing her husband, she started to pick up their clothes.

They ended up wearing only their robes, both amazed at how comfortable they were with their nakedness around each other.

They looked through the door to the left and found the bathroom. Then they tried the other doors, one a closet, the other a large, comfortable, sitting room.

They entered the room nervously looking for any sign of recent occupation. When they had gone over the entire room, and still found nothing, they decided to look in yet another room.

When they entered this next room , their nostrils were assailed by the heavenly scent of food. This room, it turned out, was the dining room. The room had a large oak table with gold plates and cutlery. The table was nearly full to bursting with food.

Harry and Ginny suddenly realised that it must be well past lunchtime, not that it mattered if it wasn't, they thought as their stomachs suddenly growled with hunger.

Harry, having a sudden flash of inspiration, called out, "Dobby?" There was a pop and Dobby appeared in front of them, wearing a pillowcase.

"Lord and Lady Potter is wanting something from Dobby?" he asked in his usual squeaky voice.

"Uh, yeah Dobby," Harry answered, slightly taken aback by the House Elf's new form of addressing them. "We were wondering if you knew what this place is, and also how we can get in and out," Harry said, gesturing around at the room.

"We House Elves are sending food here every mealtime, and are keeping it tidy. We have been doing this since Hogwarts was founded, it is tradition. Come with Dobby and he will show you the way out."

They followed Dobby back into the sitting room, where he opened another door. They saw, as they entered, that this was an entrance hall. With cloak hooks and umbrella stands.

When they looked, though, they could not see another door, only a large fireplace. In fact you could say that the fireplace was too large for this size of room. Though both knew that they had never been here before, Harry and Ginny could not shake the idea that they recognized the fireplace.

Dobby led them over to the fire. "This is what you is wanting," Dobby said, pointing them towards the fire. "All Harry Potter and his Missus Ginny has to do is to walk through the fire, down the staircase and through the other fire at the bottom.

Harry thanked Dobby and asked him who lived here.

"No one lives here at the moment, Harry Potter, but this was Gryffindor's private suite, long ago."

"Dobby, would it be okay if Ginny and I had our lunch here?" Harry asked, not feeling up to facing everyone else. Surely the ministry had some way of knowing when people were married. Then there was the Weasley family clock would no doubt show Ginny's change of name to Potter, alerting the ever worrying Molly to what they had done. He'd rather die on a full stomach.

"Yes Harry Potter, Dobby would be proud to serve you dinner here whenever you's be wanting it." Dobby was now grinning widely as though it was the greatest thing imaginable to serve Harry Potter and his wife.

"Oh, well would you like to work for us permanently Dobby?" Ginny asked, ignoring the look from Harry.

"Dobby would like that, yes Dobby would!" He exclaimed, tears streaming down his face. He hugged Harry and then Ginny around the knees, nearly knocking them both over.

They ate their lunch, a pleasant meal of all their favourites, touching their bare ankles to each other in order to remain in contact, before finally deciding to go downstairs. They walked though the fireplace in the hall, feeling the warm flames licking at them slightly though not burning them, and down the spiral staircase to another fire. This one however was approached from the side, meaning that they couldn't see though it, into the room beyond.

Harry and Ginny crept towards it now hearing voices on the other side. They poked their heads out, into the back of the fire, so that their faces were hidden in the shadows. They looked out over a common room filled, it seemed, with angry red heads. Harry gulped.


	4. Chapter 4

AN - I have rewritten or otherwise edited the previous three chapters, so please reread them if you haven't done so already. It has also enabled me to lower the rating to T. I hope this will encourage more readers, it's still my most popular fic though (12,000 hits!).

They looked out over a common room filled, it seemed, with angry red heads. Harry gulped.

'_Why do Charlie and Bill both have to be back in the country now of all times,'_ Harry and Ginny thought simultaneously. Her two eldest brothers were cracking their knuckles and looking menacing every time someone entered the common room. Ron and Hermione were sat together, talking heatedly. The twins had the Marauders Map out, looking at it intently, obviously they had pinched it from Harry's trunk. Percy of course was nowhere to be seen, but they did notice a rather large black dog sat by the fire. Dumbledore and McGonagall were both trying to calm down an irate Molly Weasley, but they seemed to be failing miserably.

"I want to know where my babies are Albus!" Molly shouted. "They could be anywhere, up to anything! I thought you said she was safe from him!"

Dumbledore sighed, rubbing his eyes gently with his long fingers. "As you know, Molly, there are various precautions taken at Hogwarts to prevent sexual activity. Boys have the charm put on them by their parents before they come to Hogwarts, muggleborns get it from the teacher who introduces them to the magical world. In Harry's case this would have been done by Hagrid," a slight flicker of worry crossed his face at this. "In addition most girls born to magical parents are placed under a chastity charm broken only by marriage. I presume Ginevra was charmed?" Molly nodded.

"But the normal rules don't often apply when it comes to Harry," Ron complained bitterly. "He always has everything so easy, and now he has my sister." The dog by the fire growled loudly at this.

Harry felt glad that he could still trust his godfather to stick up for him. Ginny squeezed his hand in reassurance.

"I'm sure everything will work out alright, I've spoken with Miss Chang and she's decided to forgive Harry," Dumbledore tried to pacify them. "A quick memory charm and everything will be back to normal. We simply cannot have them complete what started in the Chamber."

"But why, Albus?" McGonagall asked. "It's going too far, influencing their lives in such a manner."

It would be disastrous, Harry would never willingly sacrifice his life to destroy Voldemort if he knew that it would kill Ginny also." He ignored the angry bark from Sirius.

Neither Harry nor Ginny could believe what they were hearing. How long had they been kept apart by the headmaster's meddling?

"It doesn't seem like they're going to show up here anytime soon, might I suggest that we return to my office for a spot of tea while we wait," Everybody mumbled in agreement and followed the headmaster out through the portrait hole.

Sirius and the twins however remained, all three of them looking towards the fireplace. "Come on out Harry, Ginny," the twins called in unison.

Harry and Ginny slowly emerged from the fireplace, nervously checking that it all wasn't some big trap.

"How did you know we were there?" Harry asked, placing a protective arm around Ginny.

"We saw you appear on the map behind the fireplace, it would appear that even the Marauders didn't find that secret passage." Fred, or maybe it was George, said with a sad smile. "Sorry for taking it anyway, but we didn't want one of the others using it."

"But the map must be broken, it says here 'Ginny Potter', see?" George said pointing it out on the old parchment.

"It worked!" Ginny cried, jumping into Harry's arms to hug him. "We're really married." Sirius gave a happy sounding bark and wagged his tail.

Harry was about to say that they knew that anyway from the fact that the chastity charm didn't work, but thought better of that seeing her two brothers there. Ginny climbed down from him and patted Padfoot on the head. "Maybe we should go somewhere more private to discuss this, just in case they come back," he said, glancing at the inquisitive stares that they were receiving from their fellow Gryffindors. The twins agreed and, when nobody was looking, Harry and Ginny led them through the back of the fire and up the hidden staircase.

As soon as they got to the entrance hall Sirius transformed back to human form. "Wow, you couldn't have chosen a nicer girl pup. I would say that your parents would have been proud, but they'd probably want to kill you just as much as Ginny's do."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Ginny said rolling her eyes.

"Why don't we move into the sitting room," Harry suggested and led them all through.

"So how'd you do it then?" George asked, taking a comfy armchair.

"And most importantly, why?" Fred continued. "I know you'd jump at the chance Gin Gin, but Harry's hardly shown you any attention at all."

Ginny blushed. "I don't really know, and I don't even think Harry does either," she said glancing at Harry. "We both kind of got caught up in the moment, it was weird really. I felt as though, if we didn't get it done right away, it was going to be too late."

"Yeah, I had the same feeling too," Harry mused. "It was as though this was the last chance for me to really live. You know what? I haven't felt a single twinge in my scar since."

"Really?" Asked Sirius. "What kind of spell did you use?"

"Imbolc," Ginny replied. "It was in the Quibbler."

"Well that explains it then. The Imbolc marriage bond protects the couple from others interfering, in other words no extramarital affairs, not even with Voldemort. Quite good too, considering what you're up against. Memory charm or not, Miss Chang isn't going to have a hope in hell. I tell you though, it must be a strong bond, being forged on Valentine's day."

"Is it legally binding though?" Harry asked, a worried look on his face.

"Why? Don't you want to be married to me Mr Potter?" Ginny growled with a determined look on her face.

"No, I didn't mean it like that Ginny," he said before noticing she was joking. "I'll get you Mrs Potter." Ginny just giggled in response.

Sirius coughed loudly and the two turned back to him. "As to whether it's legally binding, it is if you were betrothed at an earlier age. If not then there are probably ways in which they can work around it. However, if what they said about you and Ginny in the Chamber of Secrets is true, then that act of saving Ginny's life may well have created a betrothal bond."

"Well I for one am glad," Harry pronounced. "Glad that you're my wife, and glad that you're going to be with me forever, Ginevra Molly Potter." Ginny swatted his arm for using her hated full name, though she couldn't help but smile at the use of her new surname.

"Ahh, just like your parents Harry, just like your parents," laughed Sirius. "Anyway, according to Wizarding Law a wizard who is over the age of fifteen, the age of parental consent for boys marrying, gains full majority rights in the Wizarding World upon his marriage. If his bride should be younger than fifteen, the minimum age with parental consent is eleven, he takes full responsibility for her, acting as her guardian until she too reaches fifteen."

"What's with eleven year old girls being able to marry?" George asked, horrified.

"Well that's the purebloods for you," Sirius sighed. "Fifteen for boys is when they are preparing to take their OWL exams, thus being able to function as an adult in the Wizarding World. Eleven is when children are sent to Hogwarts, if you know that they're going to Hogwarts, it stops you from accidentally marrying your heir to a squib. At the same time some families may feel reluctant to pay for their daughter's education, Hogwarts is quite an expensive institution to attend you know, so a family will pay for her education in return for the marriage. I hear some families were even interested in you Ginny. Luckily your father wouldn't stand for it, but still it was quite a close broom race, he returned home one day to find your mother about to sign consent for you to marry Draco Malfoy. That's why he and Lucius hate each other so, your father even accused him of imperiusing your mother."

A shocked silence fell over them all.

AN2 – I got the idea for the measures Hogwarts employs to prevent teenagers being teenagers from the author apothecary in training and their fabulous fic Unexpected in which Harry has a little too much fun after 4th year and the following summer he has a baby dumped on him. Don't worry though, it's a Harry/Ginny story after that.


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